BIOS

Winter storm wallops Manitoba, Dakotas

Residents in Manitoba are bracing for more snow this weekend after a storm dumped as much as 20 centimetres of snow in some parts of the province on Thursday and Friday.

The winter wallop has made driving treacherous over the past couple of days in the Winnipeg area, where 2,000 collisions were reported.

Officials were so concerned about the bad weather that they recommended commuters stay off several highways north of the city. They also warned drivers about travelling on parts of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The winter weather has the Winnipeg Blue Bombers scrambling in preparation for their CFL playoff game against Edmonton on Saturday. The snowstorm hit so hard that the Bombers asked fans to grab a shovel and help clear the stadium. More snow is expected in Winnipeg on game day.

As bad as it is in Manitoba, the situation was even worse south of the border in the Dakotas, where more than a metre of snow fell in some parts of those states.

Like in Canada, state highways in North and South Dakota were closed.

In South Dakota, the highway patrol had to be called in to rescue people stranded in their vehicles in the western part of the state. About 300 people had been helped by Friday morning, The Associated Press reported.

The storm also:

dropped at least 114 centimetres of snow near Deadwood, S.D.

created six-metre snowdrifts in some parts of southwestern South Dakota